The Dodsal Group, a Dubai-based business conglomerate currently operating in countries across the Middle East and North Africa (Mena), East Africa and India, has been awarded a  $1.1-billion engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) by Sonatrach, Algeria's state energy producer, to execute a separation and compression centre (CSC) at the periphery area of South HGA-Hassi Messaoud.

The work, which includes detailed engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of the plant, will begin shortly and is scheduled to be completed in 2020.

Once ready, the plant will be producing at a capacity of 66,000 barrels per day.

On the contract win, Dodsal Group chairman and president Dr Rajen A Kilachand said: "This order further strengthens our long-term relationship with Sonatrach and also reinforces our presence in Algeria, which is a strategic market for us."

"We are proud to continue our association with Sonatrach and are looking forward to working closely with them to successfully deliver this project," he added.

Algeria is Africa’s biggest natural-gas producer and a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The country boosted its gas exports in 2016 and plans to increase gas output to 141.3 billion cu m (bcm) this year and 143.9 bcm in 2018, from 132.2 bcm in 2016. Sonatrach’s exports generate more than half of the government’s budget revenue.

Dodsal has been executing EPC projects for over five decades in the energy, industrial and infrastructure sectors across the Middle East, Europe, North and East Africa, the Indian Subcontinent and South-East Asia.

The UAE-based conglomerate has executed other projects in Algeria, such as the construction of the Skikda LNG Project in 2009, and has since been awarded its third major EPC contract by Sonatrach.-TradeArabia News Service